Grace in Noble's kingdom
Grace's venture into the deep mountains followed her Meeting with Cassandra. Grace, Faith, Gloria,Victoria, and Cassandra entered the deep mountains searching for Eliah. They stumbled across Artemis, Arwen, and Bonnie while they used Lazarus to destroy an apex camp. Grace engaged in combat with them since she didn't support the killing of humans, particularly the ones with the information she wanted. She defeated Lazarus but was shot at by Artemis and heavily wounded. Faith quickly stepped in with a plan and saved Grace, using Victoria to mask Cassandra's aura to hold the trio hostage. However, the three crown princesses were able to escape the hostage situation and split into different groups to fight Grace/Deborah Grace fought against a newly resurrected Lazarus and was stabbed by his tongue while Grace used her "Heart of Darkness". He implanted a seed into her to use her as his next host and drank her blood, gaining a mind from Aezathol. Grace then easily ripped him to shreds and stopped Bonnie from killing Faith, stopping her barrelled arm with one hand. She then cut off and absorbed Bonnie's arm and part of her skeleton, terrifying her. Miata rescued her by starting an avalanche. Grace cut through the avalanche using the ability she gained from Mila but was overwhelmed and buried and separated from Faith. Alice rescued her days later and nursed her back to health, still curious about her ability to hide her aura. Alice tried to remove Grace's frozen bodysuit to warm her up but Grace vigorously fought against Alice and punched her, leaving Alice to resign to leaving her bodysuit on. While asleep, Grace met with Aezathol who told her that she would kill have to kill a man soon with her power and agreed to a contract where she would kill that man with her "Heart of Darkness" with no conflict from Aezathol. When she woke up, Alice told her where she was and the combat classes as discovered by Noble. She acted as Grace's tutor for nonlethal suppression (choking), forced her to talk to Noble for her own amusement, and played truth or dare with Grace, revealing how she awakened and involvement in the re-establishment. Grace talked with Delaih to find out the apex camp locations but was angered by the fact that Deborah saw Eliah as just a slave, punching her in the face. Alice helped Grace enter Noble's castle under the name of Trish. Grace was considered a student and given her own dorm. While in her dorm, Deborah barged into her room and desperately pleaded for Grace to hide her. Grace, wanting to help others, agreed and told misinformation to her pursuers. Thankful, Deborah told her that she was being searched for to find the anomaly, Victoria but was ashamed that she was afraid that she would die if she tried to search for her. Deborah felt like a failure since she was hiding instead of helping in one of the rare times she was called upon but Grace reminded her that she was more than what she could do and she should never be ashamed of herself. Thankful for Grace's advice, Deborah resolved to help others again, her life's purpose, but immediately lost confidence in herself when Raya knocked on the door. Raya asked Grace to come with her to the meeting between Noble and Alice on Alice's request. At the meeting, she spoke favorably towards the organization much to everyone's horror. For her words, Clarice took outside for therapy and told her about the drach and the true purpose of the organization, even trying to use charm to implant a suggestion to her which failed due to her lack of aura. Grace later was summoned to find the anomaly, getting negative attention when Alice revealed that Deborah was sleeping on the same bed as her. Together, Grace and Deborah searched the castle and found Victoria thanks to Deborah's tracking abilities. Grace was then taken to Clarice by Clover to be tried for being a claymore but was given a suit made of Alice's hair as a present for her lost uniform. Clarice had gotten hold of her dickey and uniform and presented it as irrefutable evidence. Grace was about to be executed by Noble when Faith rapidly seasoned and grabbed her to safety instantly. (see Vs. Omen for rest of arc summary) Faith/Cassandra Faith fought against Bonnie. She held her ground with her experience with Alphonse awakened, using her arm as a projectile. However, Bonnie began to rapidly fire projectiles, injuring Faith to a degree where her regeneration slowed down. She was about to finish Faith off when Grace rescued her, stopping Bonnie's arms with her hand and disintegrating her arm and part of her skeleton with her "Heart of Darkness". Miata triggered an avalanche to protect Bonnie and Faith was separated from Grace. Meanwhile, Artemis shot Cassandra numerous times while Cassandra couldn't fight back, heavily injuring her. Cassandra reverted to her abyssal form but was defeated but not killed since Artemis didn't have enough energy to kill her. Faith and Cassandra were exiled to Nexus to keep the princesses' secret safe. Inside nexus, Faith quickly found Cassandra and helped remove most of the projectiles in her body, leaving a few behind as a safety measure since she distrusted Cassandra. Faith expressed her hate for abyssal ones, saying they sacrificed those near them for power and Cassandra stubbornly disagreed, stating she never wanted the power in the first place. They find a way out while avoiding corrupt beings, in particular Rodin and Picasso. Cassandra constantly ate the corrupt beings and stayed strong while Faith didn't eat and was weakened. Confused by the yoki auras all around them, Faith and Cassandra wandered deeper into nexus, reading the diary of an unknown visitor to Nexus on the topic of a corrupt no 1 claymore, eon. They were attacked by Eon but Omen appeared and offered to help them. Faith declined his offer thinking he was too suspicious and ran away, realizing after that he had been watching them and had stepped in thinking they would accept his help. They fell into a body of water and were attacked by sharks and later an outsider. Laila and Lancelot rescued them, giving Faith a fruit of labor while Clover removed the spikes from Cassandra's back. Realizing they were exiled unfairly, Clover decided to bring them to the surface. On the way there, Omen killed Lancelot, Charles, and Laila and forced Clover to self-destruct. Cassandra entered a delirious state from eating the parasitic crimson fungi and saw visions of Roxanne and Priscilla. Cassandra lived since Roxanne's parasite wouldn't let her die from the crimson fungi, coating her organs in metal. Faith and Cassandra reached Noble'scastle but were apprehended by a guard force. Unaware of Omen, the force was killed by Omen and Faith and Cassandra split directions. Cassandra wandered a short distance before collapsing. She was treated by Diva who killed the fungus in her gut. Faith went to save Gloria from Bonnie, using her praying sword technique to fend off attackers. Faith was again attacked by Omen and pinned to the floor by his trident. When Noble was about to execute Grace, Faith rapidly seasoned and extended her arms, saving Grace instantly. (see Vs. Omen for rest of arc summary) Gloria/Victoria Arwen pursued Victoria to strategically remove the enemyeye. She shot large blasts of air, trapping Victoria under large pieces of wood. She was about to kill Victoria when Gloria intervened and surrendered. Both were taken as prisoners to Clarice. Clarice demanded to know why Gloria was there and what the yoki-suppressing choker around her neck was. Gloria was terrified and couldn't tell her anything since she didn't know what the choker was either. Clarice put her on servant duty and sent Victoria to the dungeons. Gloria begged to be with Victoria, even after she was told that Victoria was an awakened but was still rejected by Clarice. She spent a month as a servant in the castle and was looked down upon by many of the students for being a claymore, calling her time in the castle one of the worst times in her life. During her duties, she tried to talk and possibly rescue Victoria but she never got a chance. Gloria learned about the academy from Miata, her protector, and about theroses of requiem from Arwen in exchange for telling her about Staff. She was also used to demonstrate claymore physique to a class of awakeneds and perform the hazardous duty of feeding a corrupt being a fruit of labor. Her official mindset took control and she began to search through Noble's roses for information to report to the organization. She was terrified when Noble mentioned a live dissection of a claymore and stole the skeleton key and hid so that Noble wouldn't find her. Official went to the archives again and read more information on combat classes, realizing that Gloria was the true owner of the body and that she was just Gloria's awakened mindset, breaking her off from her singleminded goal to serve the organization. Menwhile, Victoria cocooned herself, creating disrupting waves around the castle, hiding Gloria and manipulating weak minded awakened to do her bidding. Bonnie almost caught her but she moved herself to the art gallery and hid there while Bonnie searched the dungeons. Gloria hid under Bonnie's bed and was caught by Bonnie and had her kneecaps shot to prevent escape. To prevent her from talking about Lazarus, Bonnie crushed her throat. Faith arrived just in time to rescue her, giving her time to recuperate while she fought off Bonnie's minions. Victoria was rescued by Faith and nursed back to health by Deborah. (see Vs. Omen for rest of arc summary) Vs. Omen Omen attacked, killing many of Noble's students and almost killing Bonnie. Noble shot him into splinters but he revealed that Noble had only shot a decoy. Omen tried to kill Faith, pinning her to the floor and later reaching to crush her heart but was stopped by Grace who fought him. Omen was attacked by Grace and Faith initially but was then attacked again by Gloria, Cassandra, and Clarice. Omen reverted to many different forms. His final and most powerful form, his outsider form, entrapped Grace in its heart and towered outside Noble's castle, attacking it. Quickly, Noble, Alice, Miata, Arwen, Clover, Delaih, and many other awakened stopped him and his corrupt worms while protecting the castle. Deborah cemented Omen's legs so he couldn't move, Cassandra and Alice attacked his arms, Noble attacked from a far range and Faith flew into his body trying to rescue Grace. Inside, she battled against corrupt corpses and worms and cut Grace out of Omen's heart. Meanwhile, Grace fought a mental battle with Omen, killing him by pulling out his heart and re-absorbing it, seasoning rapidly. As Omen's body began to collapse, Faith carried Grace and flew down from his body, overcoming her fear of heights temporarily to keep Grace safe. However, Lazarus was still alive and attacked the duo in human form but was killed off by Faith and Bonnie who simultaneously destroyed his brain and body, causing him to erupt into flames, ending his life with the words "Live, Dark one" Category:Events